Onward and Upward! How to live an uncommon life.

Your Abilities Matter

When you consider those around you do you tend to think more of their limitations or their capabilities? When you think of the world around you, do you tend to focus more on that which you have or that which you wish you had?

Your experience of life is conditioned by what you tend to emphasize in daily living. A friend sent me a heart-warming link yesterday about a young man who is truly a cut above. Challenged in more ways than most, this young man and his parents reveals the power of giving weight to what you have, rather than obsessing about or bemoaning what you don’t.

Sit back and relax and enjoy this inspiring ABC News presentation by Diane Sawyer and autistic salutatorian Eric Duquette:

11 Responses

You brightened my day. I prefer to believe in the intrinsic goodness of mankind but too often that is not what is reported about. It’s the tragedy, unfairness and sometimes just complaint (or as Coach Wooden called it…whining) that gets the air time.
My hat is off to Eric, his courageous parents and kind classmates and my thanks go out to Diane Sawyer and you Gregg Hake for using the news and the WWW to focus on mankind’s capabilities. Every bit helps.

What a wonderful post for all! We are charged with great responsibility when we become parents, this is often over looked and taken for granted. His parents were great examples for us all. This is a good reminder for anyone, with children or not, to take on a higher perspective relative to those around us. To be someone who infuluences another to seek the highest in themselves is the least we should aspire to, what a privelege it is to see the outcome. Thanks so much!

In the clip you posted yesterday, John Wooden said parenting is the most important profession in the world. The Duquettes had their jobs cut out for them and they triumphed. Congratulations to Eric and his parents, and to friends, family and teachers who believed more in the potential abilities than the perceived limitations!